User's Guide
Library Window
Playlist Window
Track Editor Window
Customization
Advanced Topics
Regular Expressions
Trouble Shooting
Tables
ID3 Frame Descriptions

Command Line
jampal Command
Making an Envelope
Tag Backup
Text to Speech

Author
Peter Bennett

My Other Projects
Peter's Backup
Proxy and debug tool

Jampal supports mp3 encoded audio files with ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags. If no tags exist on the files they will be added the first time a tag update is performed. There is no support for wav files, ogg vorbis, wma, etc. Any attempt to add files of these types to the library will result in an error message. Files can only be played once they have been added to a library or to a playlist.

ID3 tags

Jampal can successfully read all versions of ID3 tags: ID3v1, ID3v2.2, ID3v2.2.1, ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4. It can read tags that are "unsynchronized" or "non-unsynchronized", and compressed tags. This is more comprehensive than most other programs.

Jampal writes ID3v1 and ID3v2.3 tags (non-unsynchronized, non-compressed). These are the versions that almost all players support. If a file has a different version of tag or one that is compressed or unsynchronized, it will be converted the first time it is updated by Jampal. Also if there is only an ID3v1 or only an ID3v2 tag the other will be created the first time the tag is updated by Jampal.

Library

This program will store a library of any number of mp3 tracks that exist in any combination of directories or hard drives, including network drives.

The library displays all tracks with selected fields in a table format. The table can be sorted on any column or combination of columns. The three major sort sequence columns are highlighted in the column header.

Library columns can be rearranged by dragging from left to right.

Library rows can be rearranged by dragging up or down, or by sorting.

Tracks can be edited from the library, directly in the grid or by opening a track editor window.

Drag and drop supports dragging files from the explorer or file manager into the library or into a playlist. It also allows dragging files from the library or playlist to another place within the application, to a directory on the hard drive, to other player software or to CD burning software.

Clicking on the title bar sorts tracks by any column. Multiple columns can be clicked to sort by multiple values for example track title within artist. The words "the" and "a" at the beginning of a title or artist name are ignored for sorting.

Typing the first few characters of a value sorted jumps to the closest matching entry in the list.

Track Editor Window

ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags can be displayed and updated, using a track editor window. Many tracks can be updated in one operation, for example to place an album art picture on all tracks of an album.

The editing window displays a fixed number of preferred fields first, then all other frames from the tag. Most values can be edited, and documentation on the meaning of each value can be displayed. One or more files can be updated at a time and "super tagging" can be applied to one or more files at a time.

The Super tagging feature allows updating any tag value(s) from the file name and file directory.

Audio Player

Audio player controls exist at the top of the library window and also at the top of the playlist window. From the library you can play a single track, while the playlist will play all tracks in succession. Songs in the playlist can be played in any sequence or shuffled into random order.

An option on the Edit menu allows you to turn on a synthesized voice announcement of song titles while playing in the library or playlist.

Playlist

The playlist displays in a more compact format than the library with fewer details shown. It has all of the capabilities of the library, including editing, sorting, rearranging.

Customization

Jampal can be customized in many ways, for example

• Customize your library to store whatever values you wish. Customize your library view and playlist view.
• Create as many libraries as you wish.
• Create multiple views of the same library, each displaying different columns.
• Create Multiple playlists. The program will remember how far you have played in each one, even after a restart.

Multi User

Update tags while a song is playing.

Share the same library from multiple computers, and make updates from different computers without risk of losing data in the library.

Data Sharing

The Jampal library is a tab-delimited text file with a format you can define. This means that you can open it with any text editor or spreadsheet program for any purpose. A Jampal library can be set up compatible with Musicmatch Jukebox, so that you can import a Musicmatch library into jampal or import a jampal library into Musicmatch.